Guest Post: Can You Really Stay Healthy While Traveling?

When we go on vacation, we often let some of our healthier habits slide. Not on purpose, but because we are just too busy enjoying our free time, thinking about what we want to do and making sure we’ve taken care of all arrangements.

This altered mindset we all know comes with time away leads us to ask: can you really stay healthy while traveling? We believe the answer is yes. It all comes down to maintaining your mindset and planning healthy activities to do while you’re away. In today’s article, we’ll take a look at some effective and enjoyable ways you can stay on top of your health while traveling.

Maintain your Healthy Mindset

Since all our actions stem from thoughts, it makes sense to maintain a conscious awareness of our health. This can be achieved through surrounding ourselves with media and information related to being healthy.

Use some of the downtime you’ll have while traveling, either on the plane, in the airport or at the hotel, to watch some documentaries or television shows dealing with healthy living. By using a Virtual Private Network, you can access Netflix and Youtube wherever you are and view tons of health related content, from cooking shows to nutrition documentaries.

If you prefer not watch films, there are lots of health-related magazines or books to help you maintain your healthy mindset while you are traveling.

Plan Healthy Activities

No matter where you will be traveling, there will be countless opportunities to hike, walk, climb, run or swim. Plan days involving exercise, venture off into nature and experience what going off the “beaten path” has to offer.

Although leaving time to laze by the pool is important, remember holidays offer so much more. When traveling, there are countless things to see, do and experience. Don’t miss out on the opportunities for exploration and sightseeing. Adventuring into unexplored areas across the world allows us to satisfy our wanderlust while also exercising and staying fit.

If you’re in a hot location, though, be sure to take plenty of water to maintain good hydration, and always ensure you’ve packed for your environment. Safety is paramount if you do plan on exploring rural areas.

Overall, staying healthy while traveling is not just a dream, but something you can do quite easily. You just have to work on your mindset and take advantage of the opportunities around you. New areas and environments can have an impact on how our minds operate, so be ready to apply this to your health-related goals and life choices.

As you are putting together your itinerary, be sure to plan activities involving exercise. These could be sightseeing, hiking, sports or really anything else that gets you moving. The added intrigue of discovering and learning about a new place will help make these healthy activities more fun and exciting. In the end, vacations and traveling are all about discovery, so embrace your location and see what unique health and fitness attributes it has to offer.

Author Bio: Cassie is a health and tech blogger with a keen passion for traveling. She enjoys outdoors and wilderness traveling, which means her holiday plans usually include visiting locations with lots of health-related activities to offer, especially those with beautiful scenery.

12 Comments

Great topic! It’s definitely hard for me to eat as healthy as I do at home while traveling. I just want to try all the famous foods, which are usually pretty fattening. I don’t let it get me too down though since when exploring a new city we easily walk 10+ miles per day. It’s always nice to get out in nature, too. Great tips!

Especially Italy, right? ALL the food – yum! We’re the same, eating a drinking like a local is really important to us but then as you mention, we walk a lot too whilst exploring. Whilst we were in New York at the beginning of the year we walked in excess of 16km a day (my feet still hurt now!), so did’t feel too guilty about the lunch time donut 🙂

love this comment! So true! I always want to try all the famous foods! Like you said… holy fattening. But I always find myself walking (or running to catch that train) 10+ miles a day! I ate like no other on my 12 day euro trip and came back to find I hadn’t gained any weight at all since I was walking so much! Great Post EatSleepLoveTravel!

When one step back, one will realize that it does not actually take that much time to set aside to exercise! Excuses we always have but even in 30 minutes one can get a lot of calories burnt and the body a good workout!

Especially when on a city break or active holiday. It’s easy to walk a lot without even realising it. However, it’s those beach days we all need to think about. Drinking nice drinks and eating nice food and not doing anything to combat them. Although I’ll be honest I can’t remember the last time I had a beach day 🙂

Balance is the key and exploring is so much fun, sometimes keeping fit on the road is easier than first thought 🙂

Vicky & Chris

Thanks for joining us (Vicky & Chris, a married couple from Yorkshire, England) as we Eat, Sleep, Love and Travel our way around the world! Between us, we have been to 75 countries (long may the list grow!)

We have been travelling together since January 2007 when we took our first trip only two weeks from our first meeting to Florence, Italy.